Trouble making sprites... can I do it with a 64 meg video card?

Hi there,

I only have a 64 mb video card (Jerome said in the sprite generator thread it required 128 mbs...), but I need to create a sprite.

If I can do it wit ha 64 mb video card, what exactly do I need to do?

I put the model and skin into descr_model_battle.text (I overwrote the bull warrior model and skin) then created a sprite_script.txt both in the rome/data folder and the in main directory itself with the line:

carthage_bull_warrior spain

Then I created a shortcut with -sprite_script at end, but when it loads, it immediately crashes...

What is wrong?

If my video card is the problem, would someone be willing to make a sprite for me?

Thanks.

Have a look in the sprite folder and check that it hasn't actually made one! When sprite generation works all you get to look at is the RTW/BI splash screen whilst its doing it & it doesn't give you any completed message etc.

If you're only making one sprite the process would be pretty quick so might look like it was just crashing.

Only things you should normally need to fiddle with are to make sure you are on 16bit graphics with NO anti-ailiasing. You can change those settings in game preferences and sometimes also have to change them in your graphics control panel so they match up as well. (game settings don't override settings for all cards)

If you're really, really stuck post links to bits and I'll make it for you..... (please include the EDU and DMB listings for unit, .cas, texture and sprite script)

Also I believe the sprite_script.txt has to go in the Rome - Total War folder not the Rome - Total War/data folder.

Here is what I did basically.

I took a cavalry skin from EB and wanted to convert it to an infantry skin.

So to test it I copied the files into the DMB and changed the animations (skeleton), works fine, and also make some EDU changes So I did this. I choose to overwrite the Bull Warrior just because I could type Bull in the find window to quickly access it.

The skin now works perfect in game. Problem is I don't have a matching sprite. Here is what I changed below.

type carthage_bull_warrior
skeleton fs_spearman
indiv_range 40
texture spain, data/models_unit/textures/EBUNIT_SPW_EASTERN_CITIZEN_CAVALRY_SABA.tga
model_flexi data/models_unit/ebunit_SPW_unit_eastern_citizen_cavalry_high.cas, 8
model_flexi data/models_unit/ebunit_SPW_unit_eastern_citizen_cavalry_med.cas, 15
model_flexi data/models_unit/ebunit_SPW_unit_eastern_citizen_cavalry_low.cas, 30
model_flexi data/models_unit/ebunit_SPW_unit_eastern_citizen_cavalry_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite spain, 60.0, data/sprites/ebsprite_carthaginian_infantry_dorkim_leebi_feenikim_mookdamim_all.spr
model_tri 400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f


So I'm assuming I type carthage_bull_warrior spain in the sprite_script.txt and put it in either the main directory, or the rome total war/data directory (it is currently in both), then type -sprite_script at the end of a shortcut and it should work when I run the shortcut? It brings up the splash screen for about 10 seconds, then back to desktop, but nothing is in the rome total war/data/sprites folder (does it go to a different directory?).

Am I missing a step?

Two things:

First make sure you add -show_err to the end of the command line so that any errors will (hopefully) produce a message.

Second in your sprite_script file you need to specify the faction you want to create . So the entry in the sprite_script file should be carthage_bull_warrior spain.

Yeah, I mentioned the faction in the first post, it is in there.

The -show_err command isn't bringing anything up...

Sorry I missed that about the faction.

I did everything you did (except for change the unit) and ran the sprite_scirpt shortcut, and it created the sprites in the the data/sprites folder as expected.
So the only four things I can think of are:
1) when you changed the unit you mistyped something
2) the models are designed for a mounted unit so when generating sprites it needs to be mounted
3) you aren't running rtw 1.2 or later
4) you mistyped sprites either in the shortcut or the filename or mistypes the unit or faction inside the sprite_script.txt file

Unfortunately I doubt any one of these is accurate so that doesn't really help.

I just tried it with the normal bull warrior model and some other models.

Sadly, it didn't work. It goes to the splash screen, but nothing comes in the rome.../data/sprites folder. That is the right folder correct? If so it must be my video card right?

This is really annoying. Currently I'm running RTW 1.5.

Could I email some good soul the files and they convert it for me?

I'd really appericate it.

If no one else has offered you can email it to me:
mak'at'paintedwolf.co.uk

You can also send them to squidsk(at)gmail.com.